Really sad news...

Craig Bainbridge passed away on Friday the 8th of April after a massive battle with cancer.
His spirit was strong, but his body was not.

The following is a message from his mum, Heather:

As promised here is a summary of Tuesday, the service to Celebrate the Life of Craig.


I believe Craig would have loved everything that took place on Tuesday, it was very appropriate for the person he was. In front of the church there were six vases of loose bright yellow sunflowers with yellow ribbons. I must admit they were not standing tall, looking up, but rather looked a little downcast and perhaps respectful of the occasion, but they were beautiful. In amongst the flowers we had Craig's Liverpool shirt hanging. It was specially made for him and on the back are the words Legend, which is what Craig was.

The service was conducted by Steve Pohlmann, Craig's friend and the pastor who married Craig and Kate. The church was almost full, I estimate in excess of 300 people, and at least half of them were dressed in Believe t/shirts, including Kate, the family and the pastor.
My sister and her husband created the most beautiful pamphlet for the service with a wedding photo of Craig on the front, and the scripture "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." Very pertinent for Craig.

The service started with Amazing Grace and Steve gave a short but very appropriate message on "where God was" when Craig was sick and dying, and he explained so clearly that God was there, present and that Jesus wept. It was beautiful and very understandable. He also spoke beautifully about Craig and where he is now, healed and complete.

There was then a time of tributes and as Steve said we could have stayed there for days. Craig's impact on people, friends, family and strangers reached far and wide and we've had dozen's of messages from people Craig didn't even know but who were inspired by his facebook messages. His brother Les then played a piece on his guitar that he had composed especially for Craig and during that time there was silent reflection on all that had been said about Craig.

Listening to his friends and family talk about him made us all very proud.

We then sang the very moving and emotional Liverpool song, "you'll never walk alone." There were many comments about Craig having a laugh at all his non-Liverpool friends singing His team's song.

After a brief tea at the church we went to the Sportsclub where Craig spent a large part of his life. Everyone was given a piece of paper to write a message on and these were attached to balloons.

We all went onto the middle of the soccer field and 120 red and white balloons were realsed together. Seeing them soar up to the heavens with messages of love for Craig attached was extremely moving.
Charlie had ordered a beautiful cake with the Liverpool emblem on and once again non supporters got to eat a cake they normally wouldn't have touched, and I'm sure Craig would have been delighted.

During the remainder of the day, the Parletones CD was played over and over again. The two main band members who had played at Craig and Kate's wedding had tried to get flights out of Germany to be there but were unable to. I'm glad they couldn't make it, that would have been far too emotional for everyone especially Kate, but what a tribute to Craig!
"You'll never walk alone" was also played over and over again, and you can only imagine the emotion it provoked in everyone, especially after a series of shooters!

Craig will be creamated and very fittingly Kate chose for him to be dressed in a favourite pair of shorts with his Superman T/Shirt, underneath a BelieveT/shirt. He really was a superman in the way he fought this fight. Marc and his friend Chris had written a beautiful message on a Liverpool shirt, which also went with Craig.
I got a very moving letter from Craig's oncologist today. He told me that the fact that Craig had lived these past 18 months, and that he'd been able to get married, cycle races and so on was in no way due to the doctor or to chemotherapy, but rather due to some higher power, as Craig had been incredibly diseased and sick from day one 18 months ago when he was given 6 months to live.

We know without a doubt that God graciously gave Craig more time to live and inspire others, and he was given to us for a little longer than we should have had him, and for that we are truly grateful.

He will be missed more than words can say, but we will continue to honour him and his desire to serve others and 'give back' by continuing with the Believe Project and supporting CHOC.

I find it quite significant that as Craig lay in ICU in his last half hour, a little girl with cancer, pushing her chemo drip, skipped along in the garden behind the window where Craig lay. I do believe because of Craig we can all make a difference in the lives of little ones with cancer.

Thank you again for your prayers, love and support over the past months.

Love Heather

8 Miles...done and dusted!!!

Body is battered...but very proud.
All of the 8 Mile swimmers together, raised a total of nearly R1.5 million for various charities!





Kudos to everyone!

Statistical swimming...

Yes, I have been thinking about this weekend way too much...can you blame me?
Check this out:


Hmmmmmmm?!?!?!?!

 8 MILES is equivalent to:

• 12.874752 kilometres
• 506 880 inches
• 1 287 475.2 centimetres

It takes me about 17 strokes to swim 25m at a comfortable pace so:

8 MILES is equivalent to:

• 512 lengths in a 25m pool
• 8704 strokes
• 4352 breaths

I will burn about 10 000 calories over the 8 MILES, so

8 MILES is equivalent to:

• 42 000 kilojoules
• 16.3185 Big Mac burgers with cheese

8 MILES is also the same as nearly R20 000 for CHOC, so bring on the burgers.
See you on the other side!

Midmar swim looms...

I have often stood at the side of the pool and thought that I should really be snuggling under the covers rather...
Well, with 9 days to go, I am doing the shuffel towards the pool with eager arms!
I have been off for the last ten days with a ridiculous chest infection. Have coughed so hard I nearly dislocated my spine!  That would have been a good chuckle?!? I can see the headlines now:
MAN COMPLETES MAMMOTH SWIM LIKE SPINELESS EEL!
Well, jokes asideI am crapping myself. But my greatest supporter is quietly confident in my abilities.
I do love the GoodWife!

I will be swimming alongside the Human Polar Bear! Yes, Lewis Gordon Pugh is one of the 50 8-Mile swimmers! I say I will be swimming alongside him, but really, it won't be for very long. Perhaps we can enjoy a chat on the boat ride back to the start??

Later Y'all

Exhausted - What a swim!

Yes, the 25km swim is done and my body is rather worse for wear...
Man, it was long...

Honestly, the swim was really, really good. It is amazing how you learn about the capabilities of your body during an event like this. Something that you are sure that you will need to bail out of after the first stretch, seems efforless now that it and so much more has been completed. The first leg of day one was a monster 3.5km in water that really felt like the Engish Channel at the height of a North Sea storm surge! The waves were massive. The rest of the legs were really not that bad. Like I said, after the first and longest stage I told myself: "For the rest of the swim, there is nothing longer that needs to be swum."
99% of an event like this is the mental battle.

As I was swimming, thinking about what I would write on my Blog, it occurred to me that this mental battle was similar to what Craig would have dealt with (only on a seriously minor scale).
Hats off to you my friend. My battle was tough enough and with yours, you have simply kept your chin high...

You have my ultimate respect my friend!
You are a TROOPER!!!!

Capital 3 K!!!

Greetings from a rather stiff and sore Braddles to you my avid readers!

Yip, the Capital K was swum on Sunday and much to my delight the sun shone for the first time since I was six! I did the Three kilometre even, nice and early and thank goodness. Between 1.5km and about 2.5 km the wind picked up and it was like swimming in a blender.  Every breath was met with a flurry of chocolate dam water...YUMMY!!! Finished in 1:01.27, sot not too disappointed about that.  The one thing that played through my mind as I chugged ever so slowly towards the finish line was how tired I was - and that this was just shorter than one of the legs of the "Lap of Midmar" swim - and there are 8 legs!!!!!

5, V, Five, 5 days to go until the "Lap of Midmar" event starts and i am making funny squeaky noises in anticipation. Yes this is only a training swim towards my 8 Mile, CHOC, Craig Bainbridge swim in Feb, but I am really looking forward to it.

Craig has also been writing, he may have been misdiagnosed!!!! HECTIC!
Check out the details on the link below! He is a real machine, cycled the 94.7 Cycle challenge this weekend!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/?sk=messages&tid=1351201198464

Have an awesome day y'all

B-Dog!

First swim in sight...

Ah, lookee... The weathe has finally broken enough for me to walk down to the pool and dive in without losing bits and pieces to frostbite.
Speedo's really don't offer as much insulation as one would think!

First "pre-swim swim" is on Sunday and i feel like... OK, not quite comfortable with the word 'confident'...comfortable? Yes, I am confident about comfortable!
It's the Capital K at Midmar Dam.  The letter K, implying one Kilometre. Well, I'm doing 3...
The 3km race starts at 7:30 and I'll be off.
I'm taking it easy though, a training swim.  Remember I'm confidently comfortable, not comfo.....you get the point.

This is how I felt this morning in the pool...phew.  Wish me luck!